INS orders fingerprint scanners

The Immigration and Naturalization Service announced Thursday that it has ordered 276 fingerprint systems from Visionics Corp. that will be used at 127 INS sites to transmit information to the FBI.

Visionics will begin to ship and install the FingerPrinter CMS live-scan fingerprint systems this month and anticipates completion by Sept. 30.

The initial value of the order, including equipment and maintenance, is valued at more than $7.4 million, said Joseph Atick, chief executive officer of Visionics, a provider of identification technologies and systems.

The INS uses live-scan electronic fingerprint scanning systems to digitally capture and electronically submit fingerprint images of INS benefits applicants.

Greg Collett, the branch chief of application support center operations at INS, said the systems will be used to meet the anticipated increase in applicants stemming from the Legal Immigration and Family Equity (LIFE) Act, which was signed into law in December 2000.

"They will help us to streamline and reduce timeframes needed to process benefits applications, prevent fraud and ensure accurate capture of the biometric data," Collett said.

Visionics was formed as a merger between Digital Biometrics Inc. and Visionics in February. Previous orders to Digital Biometrics were for 376 TenPrinter live-scan systems in INS' 127 application support centers.